Officials say it is unprecedented in Sri Lanka to depict serving head of state's portrait in a currency note

The one-thousand-rupee note depicts the hoisting of the national flag by members of the security forces on one side and an image of the president on the other side, to mark the military victory in May.

WA Wijewardena, former superintendant of currency in Central Bank, told BBC Sandeshaya that it is unprecedented in Sri Lanka to depict serving head of state’s portrait in a currency note.

'Unprecedented'

“But it does not prohibit any country in doing so,” he said.

	Sri Lanka militarily defeated the Tamil Tigers in May

Mr. Wijewardena added that, however, former presidents JR Jayawardene's and R Premadasa's portraits have previously been shown in the coins.

In a statement, the central bank said it had presented the first of the new notes to President Mahinda Rajapakse on Tuesday.

In 1996, the Tigers bombed the headquarters of the Sri Lankan central bank, killing ninety-one people and wounding more than a-thousand, one of the deadliest suicide bombings in their campaign for a separate state.